Ratatat Reveal New Album LP4, Share New Song "Party With Children"

The Brooklyn-based instrumental electro-rock duo Ratatat is back. On June 8, XL will release the group's follow-up to 2008's LP3, the appropriately titled LP4. (That's the cover, and the track "Party With Children", above.) The new album features the same bold guitar leads and precise drums these guys are known for, along with some more worldly influences and a sample from the Terrence Malick film Days of Heaven.

Evan Mast: Usually we go off somewhere super isolated and record for a month. But with Kid Cudi we went to a pro studio in Manhattan and there were lots of people there-- people from label, his cousins. But we created the song from the ground up together and it was really fun. Kid Cudi would just get really giddy about things. He originally got in touch with our A&R years ago, before he put anything out. So, when he gave us a call one day and said he'd been following us for a long time, we believed it. I only heard his stuff shortly before we worked with him, though.

Pitchfork: Have you gotten a lot of offers to produce rap songs?

EM: We've gotten a few, but usually it's from kids on MySpace. [laughs] Since the Kid Cudi thing, we're starting to get more legitimate offers, but we don't want to divulge them right now.

Pitchfork: Your new album doesn't have any singing or rapping but, after working with Kid Cudi, did you consider trying to use some different vocalists on the record?

EM: We always find compilations where a producer teams up with a different singer for every track really boring. It's hard to have a real collaboration because you're going into the studio for one or two days with each person. It just seems inauthentic. And I'm just not very talented when it comes to writing lyrics or singing. With instrumentals, they can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It's more about emotions than specific subject matter.

Mike Stroud: And we just really enjoy making instrumental songs. If we had lyrics, they would be really weird. It wouldn't work. We'd rather make music that we could actually listen to and enjoy rather than singing on it and never wanting to hear it again. [laughs]

Pitchfork: Are there any songs that come to mind that you think would be better without vocals?

EM: Yeah, like a Paul McCartney song. [laughs] And I have these mixtapes of Timbaland instrumentals. And now I can't go back and listen to the originals 'cause there are annoying rappers like Ludacris on them.

Pitchfork: This is kind of sad, but it's hard for me to listen to your music without thinking of movies or TV shows or commercials that it would go with. When you make it, you guys obviously aren't thinking...

MS: [deadpans] I'm thinking of Doritos and Pepsi.

EM: "Is this more of a Doritos or a Combos song?" [laughs]

Pitchfork: What was the worst ad that wanted to use your music?

EM: There was a Swedish TV ad for feminine products. I don't know if we really want to have that association.

Pitchfork: Are you guys working on any remixes for other people right now?

EM: We're kind of avoiding remixes. We did one for Bjรถrk, who is like the ultimate artist to remix. Once you do that, everything else sounds less exciting.